That sounds like a trip I took in 2008 around Spain. I was paying $5 + 3% for ATM withdrawals and 3% for all of my purchases. I just calculated and paid $137.59 in 3% FTF on my credit card, $22.90 in 3% FTF and $20 in international ATM withdrawals. That was $180.49 thrown away. On the upside, the frustration led me to find FlyerTalk in search of a better way. ^

On a related note, neither the Hotel Alfonso XIII nor the Westin Palace, both Starwood properties, hit us with DCC. Perhaps it wasn't as common in Spain at the time. On an unrelated note - but appropriate for the EMV thread - I paid a péage on an autoroute in Southern France with my magstripe only card. :eek::eek::eek: I also looked at my 2006 trip, and I was hit with DCC for each of my four purchases at El Corte Ingles. What's interesting is that I was not hit for the FTF at the time, so somewhere along the way Chase switched from a currency exchange fee to a foreign transaction fee. The 2006 trip was my first trip out of North America in 8 years and my first international trip where I was paying my own way.

I got taken to the cleaners at every corner, and you're right about everybody smiling at the time! Ever since I wised up to DCC I feel like things have gotten a lot more confrontational. Part of the it is the verification process to make sure I've opted out of DCC and the back and forth of "check [X]LOCAL CURRENCY and it's LOCAL CURRENCY." and my reply of, "What input is there on your part to make sure that happens? The back office won't do it!" The other part is merchant/ATM games of "Are you sure? Are you really sure you want to opt out? I can't help you with the exchange rate if you opt out!" "I'm willing to take my chances. Thank you." All of this gets my wife to say, "Please, please... just pull out your AmEx!!!" :D

Spain 2011
 

Was hit with DCC at a local hotel at Seville. The guy never offered the option to choose currency, ran my Schwab card (0% fee) on a handheld and it spit out the USD bill. I was upset but he refused to void it. Amount was like $70 so I let it go. Besides it was during the Semana Santa - we literally had no place to go, actually were lucky to find a night at this place, and the next night (Friday the highlight) we had to move to a hotel way out next to a local hospital, the only place found thru Citi's ThankYou network, prepaid. Everything was solidly booked, including dumpy hostels.

Restaurants did not DCC us on that trip.

What I've said a few pages before.. DCC will help Amex mostly, as they're immune to it. I'm getting slightly worse rate with Amex (but I bit more Miles, it's about even in the end) but I don't have to worry about DCC: I'll use Amex whenever possible.

I have to wonder how many merchants just expect people to say, "Forget it." over a small transaction, which in aggregate ends up netting them a lot of profit. Now is all cases I proactively say, "Charge <local currency>." In the case of Spain, I might pull out the hoja de reclamaciones trump card, which usually forces merchant cooperation. If they say, "We're out of complaint forms." then you know they're lying. A merchant is required to have them, and a customer can call the police to make sure the complaint form is received and filled out. Sometimes there's a bit of a standoff, but in the end the merchant will always capitulate.

My current best practice is that I always allow for enough time to resolve these matters. I'm not saying you took the wrong action here either. Back in 2011 I probably wouldn't have even realized I had gotten ripped off, but reading stories like this infuriates me.

The issue in the US is that there are few AmEx cards that waive foreign transaction fees. The Delta Air Lines AmEx products, the Platinum Card, and the Centurion Card are the only three lines that waive the fee. Furthermore, unless you fly Delta, you're unlikely to have the affinity card. This leaves the Platinum Card - or Centurion, but I imagine if you have the Centurion you don't really care about fees anyway - but the Platinum card only earns at 1x. Other cards can be more lucrative for their category bonuses, even with overseas spending.

Now, the DCC markup would more than wipe out any category bonuses you could receive, so it's possible AmEx Platinum is the solution for those cases of unavoidable DCC. The problem is that not every place accepts AmEx, and the exchange rate can be poor compared to the Visa or MC rate.

The Fidelity Amex is a good choice for these situations. Sure, there's a 1% FTF, but you're earning 2% cash back.

Avis
 

If you use Avis rental cars, there is now a check box on their website that allows them to use DCC. It's checked by default of course, but you can uncheck it.

Go into your account online, and edit credit cards. Then uncheck the DCC box.

Another good reason to have an online account to view your transactions/receipts/and customer information.

Thanks for the update. I know Avis was one of the DCC offenders, but it's good that there's at least the option now.

Same here on finding Flyer Talk. ^^

At the time, my local bank's ATM card would permit $200 per day withdrawal limit, and 3 free draws per month before imposing a small charge per draw (couple bucks, I think). But that was at least reasonable and something you could live with. I later "upgraded" it to a MC debit card just to get the $500/day ATM draw limit and they also dropped all the fees on their end. So that is about the best deal going. For intl. travel, I now pre-spot a bank-owned ATM near our first hotel and draw currency there or wherever is convenient and not charging outrageous fees using this ATM card, and also bring a mix of 0% FTF credit cards for charges.

The one card with a 1% FTF that I have relied on is the USAA MC (old style) for the convenience of offline PIN as first CVM. Sadly, that will drop back to signature-preferred when it renews next Feb, so we'll have to see how well that works. (I think jeff jaguar said his had issues doing transactions he had done successfully before with the old style card.) It was great while it lasted: bought train tickets in Belgium this spring when nobody else's card worked at the kiosk.

Just to be fair, the "new" downgraded USAA mc did work everywhere I tried it this past summer but while last year (2013) it worked as chip and pin, this summer (2014) at many of the same merchants, it was a chip and signature card. I did try to use it at an SNCF kiosk at CDG but what happened is before I left, I changed the pin online and tried to use the new pin but apparently when you change a pin on this card and several others, you have to make at least one emv transaction to re-write the offline pin on the chip. The USAA cards issued after April 2014 have signature as #1 priority for purchases which USAA has said was done for "business considerations" whatever they are. I can't say for sure it will not work as an offline pin as a secondary cvm at unpersonneled kiosks; ;my guess is it will. Maybe that'll make you feel somewhat better.

I told the merchant to bill in local currency before he ran the card. He claimed the machine automatically converted it. I did not know the existence of the law until reading this thread. I knew I could dispute the charge with Schwab but there are more important things to do in life than the $2.10 lost. Yes, as a consumer I should do my civic duty but...

[QUOTE=Happy;23719506]I told the merchant to bill in local currency before he ran the card. He claimed the machine automatically converted it. I did not know the existence of the law until reading this thread. I knew I could dispute the charge with Schwab but there are more important things to do in life than the $2.10 lost. Yes, as a consumer I should do my civic duty but...[/QUOE]

The lies of DCC:

1. "We have no control over it. It's done automatically by the terminal.:

2. "The amount in your currency is only being shown for your convenience. You are being billed in our currency"

3. "It is reqquired by local law."

4. "It's a good rate; better than your bank which charges a fee for currency conversion."

And after a customer is on to their scam...

5. "So sorry but the transaction cannot be voided."

Or the most frustrating of all

6. "No speak English."

Of course my most familiar experiences in seeing DCC in action have occurred in Europe. I am not familiar at all with practices in Asia oar Australia or Africa. Anybody with any of the other oies employed to scam people that I missed?

I was booking tickets for CDG station pickup in early Sep.
My flight arrived at 6:55
There was a train leaving 8:19
There was a train leaving 10:16 for 20-something Euros more per person.

I didn't dare take the 8:19. I thought I have to go 1. find the station and then 2. queue for the tickets. I can predict the time for (1) but not (2).

The thought did cross my mind I can use my Australian chip-and-pin Amex for a speedy CDG-Bordeaux tix and pick up the rest at Bordeaux later. But I'm still risking a FU with the SNCF kiosk and have to queue anyway. Also I was worried the Bordeaux station won't deal with foreigners.

I chickened out and bought the 10:16. Eventually I got to the ticket office and picked up the tix by 7:40...

Hmmph! Not until I see it in action or somebody else confirms your guess.

Speaking of CVM I actually didn't have to authenticate at all for a lot of unmanned kiosks in France - including tram tickets in Bordeaux, highway tolls in Normandy, Paris metro tix (x10) and an unmanned gas station in rural Normandy.

The tram tix/highway toll/Paris metro tix can be explained away by Visa having some sort of express pay/small ticket transaction system in Europe, with a limit similar to that in HK (around EUR20), but I bought 52EUR gas in the unmanned gas station - that's quite a hefty small ticket limit!

(I used the Fubon HK chip and sign card. No PIN for CVM)